Justice for wounded: the fourth Duke of Westminster to the rescue?

Inheritance Tax offers a precedent that could stop the Government cutting
soldiers' compensation.

Perhaps by the time you see this the Government will have retreated from its shameful attempt to cut compensation paid to members of the Armed Forces wounded in the line of duty. Bob Ainsworth, Defence Secretary, said on Thursday that it had "possibly" been a mistake to litigate against injured soldiers.

You can say that again, Jobsworth. On the day this case came to court the bodies of four more soldiers were returned from Afghanistan. So, yes, it was possibly not a very good day for lawyers representing the Whitehall Warrior to seek to claw back awards paid to Cpl Anthony Duncan of the Light Dragoons and Marine Matthew McWilliams.

Worse still, from the politicians' point of view, Cpl Duncan was too busy serving his country in Afghanistan to appear in court in London. What a contrast with so many MPs who we now know to have been feathering their own nests for years.

Cpl Duncan was originally awarded £9,250 after being shot with a high-velocity rifle in Iraq. The compensation payment was then increased to £46,000 by an appeal tribunal. Marine McWilliams fractured his thigh in a military exercise and was awarded £8,250, increased to £28,750 on appeal.

Now the MoD has taken the case to the Court of Appeal, where lawyers are expected to say the pair should be compensated only for the initial injuries and not subsequent health problems. The official argument seems to be that it was all a very long time ago and no compensation should be paid for consequential loss.

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But it surprises me that nobody has pointed out that there is a long established precedent in the fiscal statutes to support the opposite view. Section 154 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 specifically exempts anyone from any IHT liability if injuries suffered while serving in the Armed Forces contributed to their death – however long ago the injuries occurred.

This principle was established decades ago by the executors of the fourth Duke of Westminster, who claimed IHT exemption in respect of the Duke's death from cancer in 1967. The Duke had sustained a wound in 1944 while on active service.

The defence counsel opposed the claim on the grounds that an "ascertainable causal connection" had to be shown between the wound and the death, but that argument was thrown out by the court.

Mike Warburton, senior tax partner at accountants Grant Thornton, commented: "It is astonishing that the Government have chosen this moment to fight a case which denies fair compensation for soldiers suffering injuries on active service.

"There is an established principle in the IHT legislation supported by the case of the Duke of Westminster that the exemption can be available many years after the wound or disease occurred if the death was influenced or hastened by the earlier incident."

There is, of course, nothing new about public and politicians' ambivalence toward the Armed Forces; willing the end but not the means or money to achieve it. This was best described by Rudyard Kipling, who – funnily enough – first made his name as a journalist on the north-west frontier of India, in his Barrack Room Ballads. If any reader is unsure about supporting the Telegraph campaign, I hope a few verses from his classic poem "Tommy" will do the trick.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep

Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;

An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit

Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.

Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"

But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,

The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,

O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,

But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;

An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,

Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;

While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",

But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,

There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,

O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.